The invention relates in general to hat accessories, and more particularly, to an attaching device allowing various types of display or ornamental object to be removably attached to a button found on conventional hats/caps.
In order to make the hats more visually appealing for various reasons such as displaying promotions and comedic effect, many hats, especially baseball-style caps, typically include a central button at their apex. The central button provides convenient means of attaching various accessories to the hat.
Many products have been designed to attach accessories to the button on top of a hat or a cap. For instances, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,970, Knutson discloses a display object attached to a spring. By rotation and pressing the spring against the hat button, one or more of the spring coils advances past the button and restores its original dimension underneath the button. As such, interference between the button and the bottom coils of the spring secures the device to the hat.
Also, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,546, Stazo discloses a device with a thin-walled bottom member that includes a hole with slits or slots radially extending therefrom. The slits or slots allow the portion of the bottom member surrounding the hole to deform when pushing the button into the hole. Such deformation allows the button to advance past the bottom member, and then the bottom member returns to its original shape. Thus, interference between the bottom member and the button secures the device to the hat. Both the Knutson and Stazo patents disclose objects that can be removably attached to the button of a hat/cap due to interference between the button and the patented device itself. However, as both Knutson and Stazo require members that locally flex in order to achieve an interference fit, repeated attachment and removal of the device, that is, repeated flexure can eventually lead to failure of the devices. For instance, since the same coil spring of the Knutson device must cyclically flex during attachment and removal, repeatedly attaching and detaching the device can cause the coil to permanently deform to an extent that the diameter of the coil is larger than the diameter of the button. Likewise, repeated attachment and detachment of the Stazo device can eventually fracture the portion of the bottom member. In both cases, a secure interference fit between the respective devices is compromised.
Therefore, there exists a substantially need in the art for a hat/cap accessory that can be easily and repeatedly attached to and removed from a button of the cap by more reliable attaching/detaching mechanism.